 What should be done with
Dungeness crabs? That’s what researchers, including two
professors and a graduate student from Humboldt, asked more
than 200 crabbers about the fishery.
The researchers
captured and processed the responses, and they present them in
the cover story of the current issue California Agriculture.
The feature also includes summaries of management tools,
market forces, ecological considerations, and challenges of
harvesting and processing.
According to Steven Hackett,
an HSU economics professor, “It’s a fascinating drama. There’s
a lot of heterogeneity in the fishery. There are big vessels,
small vessels…. There’s also a north-south component” due to a
season-opening of Dec. 1 in waters off Humboldt Bay, two weeks
after the opening of waters nearer to San Francisco’s markets.
Hackett co-authored the article with four others: HSU
fisheries professor David Hankin, HSU economics graduate
student Matthew J. Krachey, University of California-Davis
biologist Kristen Sortais and, as lead author, UC Sea Grant
Marine Fisheries Specialist Christopher Dewees.
Their
study heard from 234 crab fisherman, about 40 percent of the
fleet, including 11 from Trinidad and 33 from Eureka. The
others ranged from Oregon to Morro Bay,
California.
 The researchers found that size
matters, and not just with restriction of the take to male
crabs at least 6.25 inches wide. According to the survey, the
bigger the boat, the more likely its crabbers opposed reducing
the limit on the number of crab traps per vessel.
(In a
subplot last September, Gov. Schwarzenegger vetoed a bill to
establish a 250-trap limit for all boats in central California
on an experimental basis. On average, larger vessels deploy
about 450 traps.)
According to Dewees, “While the
majority of vessel owners viewed trap limits favorably, most
owners of vessels longer than 50 feet considered this an
unjustified restriction on their business and a way to
reallocate crab to operators of smaller boats.”
The
surveys also found that as vessel size increases, support
onboard decreases for trip limits, community quotas, regional
management and daylight-only fishing.
Titled "Costs
and management options evaluated in Dungeness crab
fishery," the article reports that the average combined
annual landing of Washington, Oregon and Northern California
boats weighs in at nearly 33 tons, worth $31.7 million to
$84.4 million to fishermen depending on the highly variable
harvest.
“The fishery has been fully and intensely
exploited for at least 40 years,” the researchers report.
“Approximately 80 to 90 percent of the legal-sized male crabs
are harvested each season. Despite this intense harvest and
high variability in abundance, most scientists and industry
participants feel that current regulations are adequately
protecting the crab resource.”
These include a cap on
the number of vessels allowed to harvest Dungeness crab in
California waters, a minimum harvest size, an annual closure
of about five months, no take of female crabs, and mandated
escape openings on traps for undersize crabs.
Yet the
current amalgam of policies and regulations, along with market
forces and processing capabilities, has created what some have
dubbed a Dungeness “derby” in which more than 80 percent of
the take occurs in the season’s first month.
“Though
the pace of Dungeness crab fishing has continued to intensify,
it remains a profitable and important fishery,” the
researchers report. “Crab processors have evolved strategies
to deal with the huge early-season pulse of crab landings. At
the same time, fishermen continue to struggle to find ways to
cope rationally with the increasing intensity of the crab
harvest.”
Note to editors and news directors:
Photos are available from Humboldt State News Online’s Photo
Archive: http://news.humboldt.edu/gallery.phtml.
Research
sources at HSU:
Steven Hackett, professor and chair,
Department of Economics
(707) 826-3237,
sh2@humboldt.edu
David Hankin, professor and chair,
Department of Fisheries Biology
(707) 826-3447, (707)
826-3683 (Telonicher Marine Lab),
dgh1@humboldt.edu
Media contact:
Sean Kearns, Public
Affairs
(707) 826-5151, news@humboldt.edu
Additional
resources:
“Costs and management options evaluated in
Dungeness crab fishery,” the cover story of the current issue
California Agriculture, Oct.-Dec. 2004: http://californiaagriculture.ucop.edu/0404OND/pdfs/crabs.pdf
News
release from California Agriculture, University of California
Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources: http://californiaagriculture.ucop.edu/0404OND/newsrel.html
Biological
profile of Dungeness crab, from California’s Department of
Fish and Game: http://www.dfg.ca.gov/mrd/dungeness_crab.html
|